The present invention relates to a self-cooling beverage container, and more particularly, to a self-cooling beverage container adapted to provide cold beverage by cooling beers, soft drinks or other beverages using a refrigerant contained in a refrigerant vessel provided inside a beverage container.
Various cooling apparatuses using a refrigerant have been hitherto developed. The refrigerant used must have a large evaporation latent heat and a small specific heat of a liquid or a small ratio of the specific heat to evaporation heat so as to reduce the temperature of a beverage with a small amount of a refrigerant in a refrigerant chamber provided inside a beverage container. Also, since the refrigerant stored in the refrigerant chamber cannot be used when it coagulates at high temperature, the refrigerant used must have a low coagulation temperature so as to be used at low temperature.
Alternatively, from the viewpoint of structure, there have previously been proposed the following techniques: using pressurized gas; using heat exchange between a beverage and reactants arising due to a reaction between water and chemicals; and using jetting of pressurized gas into a beverage to cool the beverage.
Also, various types of cooling apparatuses in combinations of characteristics of refrigerants and structures of refrigerant chambers, have been developed to accomplish such desired self-cooling. That is, there have been continuously developed various types of apparatuses including an apparatus in which a contact area between a beverage and a refrigerant chamber is increased by providing a large horizontal or vertical space of the refrigerant chamber for achieving a maximized cooling area, and an apparatus in which a refrigerant stored in a refrigerant chamber has improved characteristics including a low condensing pressure, a high critical temperature, a low coagulation temperature and a large evaporation latent heat while the refrigerant chamber is simply constructed of a cup shaped.
There have been many existing techniques of self-cooling beverage containers, but none have been successful commercially, because novel refrigerants have not yet acquired governmental authorization with respect to safety and have encountered reduced practicability due to low refrigeration speed. Also, in the case of using pressurized gas, cooling efficiency is lowered when the expansion of a refrigerant chamber storing the pressurized gas is minimized, and the refrigerant chamber may explode at room temperature when the refrigerant chamber is expanded, making commercial use of self-cooling beverage containers impossible.
In particular, in the case of using pressurized gas, an attempt at maximizing cooling efficiency has been made, that is, a refrigerant chamber is constructed so as to increase its contact area with a beverage by forming a plurality of openings. However, the above described type of refrigerant chambers show serious drawbacks that their air-tightness may be deteriorated and mass production thereof is impossible.
To solve the above-described problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a self-cooling beverage container which has superb efficiency of cooling a beverage contained in the beverage container, which can remarkably reduce a cooling time and which can be easily manipulated so that even children or aged people can have cooled beverages easily.
To accomplish the above object, there is provided a self-cooling beverage container capable of accommodating a beverage and having a lid member formed at either side thereof to be opened, if necessary, to exhaust the beverage outside, the self-cooling beverage container comprising a refrigerant vessel provided inside the beverage container and having a refrigerant valve configured to exhaust an internal refrigerant outside, an evaporator tubing having one end connected to the refrigerant valve and the other end led to the outside of a container body to allow evaporation of the refrigerant exhausted through the refrigerant valve and to remove an evaporation heat for the refrigerant from the beverage to cool the beverage, and a refrigerant valve actuator configured to actuate the refrigerant valve, if necessary.
The top end of the refrigerant vessel is preferably disposed within a movable radius of the lid member when the lid member is severed and moved inside the beverage vessel, and the refrigerant valve actuator may include a lid member movable inside the beverage container and a handle installed on the lid member and capable of easily severing the lid member. In this case, the refrigerant valve is actuated as a refrigerant vessel is lowered by a force applied for opening the lid member through a handle.
The top end of the refrigerant vessel is preferably in contact with the lid member, more preferably lightly attached to or contacts the bottom of the lid member.
The refrigerant actuator may be a convex portion formed such that one upper end of the beverage container is made convex upward, for providing a recess to which the top end of the refrigerant vessel is connected inside the beverage container. In this case, the refrigerant vessel is lowered by a force applied thereto when the convex portion is lightly touched or pressed, so that the refrigerant valve is actuated.
Also, the self-cooling beverage container may further include an exhaust cap elevatably installed at one end of the evaporator tubing and having an exhaust hole for exhaustion of the evaporated refrigerant formed on its lateral surface. Here, a sound generating device may be installed in the exhaust cap so that characteristic sound can be generated while the evaporated refrigerant is exhausted through the exhaust hole. In this case, the sound is suitably generated according to the kind of beverage contained in the self-cooling beverage container.
Further, a tapering locking protrusion is preferably installed at the refrigerant vessel around the refrigerant vessel, and a wedge tube having a locking flange for preventing the locking protrusion from escaping outside once inserted, is preferably installed at the opposite end of the evaporator tubing facing the refrigerant valve. By doing so, the refrigerant valve is kept open once actuated, so that the refrigerant in the refrigerant vessel and evaporator tubing is all exhausted.